November 20, 2013

This past weekend, we all went to the local farm and picked celery, fennel, kale and more kale. Girlfriend told me that she loved celery--that was news to me--and then I realized that she's been enjoying all the hats I knit. A lot. Like, every day, a lot.

Now I have this need to keep her hat wardrobe full. I'd hate for her to get a reputation for wearing the same thing day after day after day.

But then again, I don't want to spoil her.

But then again, but then again, again: I have enough yarn in the joint to keep me busy, and her in new caps, for quite awhile. (Plus, I may as well keep knitting them for her. After all, she'll turn 12 and all of a sudden turn on me like I did when I was that age. I turned on my mom. I wasn't kind to her and it still hurts me that I never got the chance to apologize. I mentioned that to Girlfriend--that I was mean to my mom and never got the chance to apologize and felt bad for it--and she looked at me and said: "I'd never be mean to you, mom.")

Oy.

So, I'll be knitting a lot more caps. I guess it is my way of reconciling the way I treated my mom when I was just a little older than she is now. I suppose I feel that if I knit enough of them, you know, keep them coming, that she won't be like I was when I was a pre-teen and teen.

/feeling sorry.

BTW: See that blue blob in the bottom right-hand corner? That's her 3-year old cousin, dressed up in his batman cape. We had him all weekend and insisted on wearing it to the farm.

November 13, 2013

Sometimes, when you discover a dropped stitch in your knitting, it can be a little scary. Do you instantly rip out your knitting and reknit? Or do you use a crochet hook to fix it?

But what if you want to drop stitches on purpose?

I have found that some knitters, even though they like the distressed look of a dropped stitch here and there, aren't comfortable incorporating them into their projects. I mean, we, as knitters, spend so much time trying not to drop stitches, and that sometimes doing it on purpose can give us pause.

The following is the technique I used in the Torn-Up Toque pattern. You can follow this tutorial to add controlled dropped stitches--meaning they won't unravel all the way down to your cast on; in fact, you fully control how far down they'll go:

First, start by casting on your desired number of stitches.

Second, work your project to the row or round in which you want your dropped stitch to unravel. Then, work to the exact spot you want your dropped stitch to "end." Next, work a make-one increase. (I'm pointing to my make-one stitch. See that little left-leaning stitch thingy there?)

Next, continue working in rows or rounds to the spot where you want your dropped stitch to begin. In this example, I knit about 10 rows and stopped at the added make-one stitch (you can place a marker if you want to keep track. Note, I'm pointing to the original make-one stitch in this picture. This is where the dropped stitch will end.)

So now, after you have knit to the exact stitch that you had added by doing your make-one increase, just slip it off the left-hand needle, release it and unravel. Notice that it won't unravel past the point that you made your made-one increase.

After that, just continue knitting and this is what it will look like:

You can purposely drop stitches in all kinds of ways. Just know that you'll need to do a make-one type of increase (where you lift the bar between stitches to make a new stitch) in order to control how far the stitch unravels. Here is a picture of a couple of my Torn-Up Toques showing how you can stagger them to create a super lived-in and distressed cap:

I have also used dropped stitches in mostly stockinette sweaters just for the fun of it.

November 06, 2013

The other day, I wrote a post about a top-down cap that I made for Girflriend and mentioned that even though the yarn I was using was merino, that it felt a bit cotton-y.

I later had a question from someone who asked me if my saying that it felt a little like cotton was a compliment or not a compliment.

. . . because not everyone likes to knit with cotton.

Kitchen cotton is one thing; I actually find it rather difficult to wrangle, not to mention some of the colors are not my favorites, but a good cotton or cotton blend can be wonderful to knit and, if you match the yarn to the project well, it can and will make you very, very happy.

Problem is, the good stuff is hard to find. I do like Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton. I like the Spud & Clhoe Sweater (merino and cotton blend), too. I also like the Tahki Cotton Classic, which is mercerized (it is shiny).

So, the other day, I got a message from Figen Cakir who is the founding director of Figgi Yarns based in Turkey. She had read that I have troubles with my hands (I knit too much) and had cotton in her line that has a bit of silver in it and would I like to try it? I guess silver is associated with healing and has certain properites, and even though they make no health claims, why not see what the yarn is all about? They have other cotton yarns, too, at any rate.

It came in the mail and the first moment I saw the Sifa Silver (the natural and the green pictured), I decided to heck with knitting with this gorgeous yarn! This is screaming at me to weave it! These balls of yarn: They're my colors! Bring on the Avocado! Bring on the Burnt Sienna! This belongs in my house!

I instantly pulled out my Zoom Loom and made the most perfect coasters for a girl who yearns for a Harvest Gold kitchen . . .

And that girl would be me.

I am happy. I just wish that they distributed this in the states. Check out www.figgiyarns.com to see for yourself. Maybe if enough of us cotton lovers were to pay attention to this wonderful and not-your-typical-cotton we might see it become more readily available.

BTW: I decided that I needed to knit two huge rectangles on the bias. Yeah, yeah, I know; all the knitting is hurting my hands. I slapped the rectangles together and now I'm knitting some simple sleeves for it. I can't decide if I should add a cowl neck or not. . . (The Fibre Company Acadia in Sea Lavender.)